Nduka Obaigbena
In April, the magazine had sounded an alarm. “Nigerian media mogul, Nduka Obaigbena has imported his shoffy business practices to his London-based vanity project, ARISE TV,” it wrote. “The channel has made a habit of not paying journalists, even for dangerous work like bombarding the Isreali settlement in Gaza last summer.”
Noting Obaigbena’s already well-known habit of owing salaries in Nigeria, it drew parallels: “At ARISE, payments of $10,000 and more are overdue by anything from six months to two years. Desk staff are often paid two or three months late, and often under duress. A walkout by unpaid technicians during the week of 9 February saw the Channel screening repeats for four days.
“The first reports came in 2013, shortly after the channel first launched on Sky, when the channel fell off air for several weeks and lost its HD outlet. Since then, the channel has been broadcast solely in standard definition.”
By the end of July, the crisis had kicked into overdrive: “(ARISE) recently moved into the automated Celebro Studios on London’s Great Portland Street, in what was described internally as a measure to… cut staff cost,” Private Eye reported. “Alas last week, it was kicked out of the building for non-payment of rent. The station is currently airing repeats.”
Back in Nigeria, the only surprise people registered was just how long this latest project of Obaigbena’s had even managed to last before it failed – like everyone knew it would.
“ARISE TV about to die a death,” crowed publisher of Cassava Republic, Jeremy Weate. “Nduka doing his usual thing of not paying anyone.”
“Prince Nduka’s is a notorious debtor and sweet-tongued conman,” @unofidel responded. “Owes everyone from the doorman to the Dorchester.”
@IbuAbu added his 2 kobo. “Nduka at it again? Embarrassing Nigeria one day at a time. Doesn’t he know he’s not in his chiefdom?”
There was not positive comment found on all of social media, not even from those who have worked with him for years.
The downfall(s) of a man
Obaigbena, called ‘T Duke’ by friends, is Nigeria’s most flambouyant publisher, for sure. But that obscures a more important fact: he is also its most influential.
Thisday is Nigeria’s newspaper of record, the one its business and political elite pay the most attention to. And the one that draws the biggest cheques for advertising.
Remarkably though, every other thing he has tried to do has failed: either spectacularly, or just faded off.
The ambitious project, ARISE Magazine was one. Built to rival anything from Vogue to Vanity Fair it rose in splash and glory; securing A-list covers and interviews including Kerry Washington, Denzel Washinton, Jay Z, Alicia Keys, Naomi Campbell and former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair.
“As part of ARISE’s ongoing commitment to highlighting African talent,” it presented (in 2011) the first ARISE Magazine Fashion Week (AMFW), in Lagos, Nigeria.
The Week ended in the ARISE Magazine Fashion Awards, which winners then participated in the ARISE Magazine Fashion Gala during the (September) New York Fashion Week.
It was a spectacular success. The audacious move paid off, both in reputation and revenue, and AMFW easily became the continent’s biggest fashion event.
“It was a huge opportunity,” the influential creative director of eponymous label, Lanre DaSilva Ajayi said on a Channels TV show after the 2012 event. “I am very grateful to Nduka Obaigbena. His work for the fashion industry is huge.”
Until 2013.
In the first quarter of that year, the magazine suddenly spluttered to its death. Till date, no explanation has been given.
“They seemed to have vanished off the face of the earth,” the blogger, BlackFabulousity wailed in a post.
But it didn’t die alone.
In a statement released on 20 March 2013, the magazine announced that the Fashion Week – which was to hold just a week away (28 March-1 April) – had been cancelled “due to technical and logistical reasons.”
A site, Integrity Reports, published its findings. “The show, in its third year, was rocked by many scandals last year including a protest by many models who complained of poor treatment and non-payment of their wages,” it reported. “This forced the show to be embarrassingly delayed for few days before its take off.
“There have been silent grumbling and hints that the show will be boycotted by notable fashion houses and models due to what they experienced last year. Sources said when he heard of the impending disgrace, he had contemplating taking the show to either Johannesburg or Cape Town in South Africa, but he could not guarantee a favourable attendance of key players in the fashion industry. This forced him to settle for Lagos and as at last month, things didn’t look promising which forced him to take the cancellation option to wards off any embarrassment.”
In its place, the organisers announced two shows holding later in the year and the next year, in New York for Fashion Week, and in Lagos, to celebrate Nigeria’s 100th Anniversary.
Those promises never came to life.
Epic dreams, epic fail
Before all of this, there was Nigeria’s (probably Africa’s) biggest music event, the ThisDay Music Festival.
It had brought all of America’s greats into Nigeria – including Jay Z, Beyonce, Rihanna, Lionel Richie, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, R. Kelly and Mary J Blige. At its peak, concerts were also held in Washington DC and the United Kingdom.
It died before its fifth birthday, in 2010.
His Thisday Dome in Lagos? Closed down by the government after its first big gig. His magazine, The Capital, planned to be Abuja’s most influential weekly? Shut down. Its editor – Paul Ibe – is still in court with Obaigbena to this day.
Thisday Newspapers in South Africa? In 2003, it was the first Nigerian newspaper to go global. But, as usual, it crashed. In a fiery blaze of debt, accusations and disgrace.
The Thisday Awards, once Nigeria’s biggest prize, and host of everyone from Bill Clinton to Cherie Blair? Now dead.
Its integrity because to suffer death by a thousand cuts in 2010, after the reform push of the new Central Bank of Nigeria governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. Many of Thisday’s awardees turned out to be crooks who were either jailed, or reached court settlements.
Before that, in 2008, the Lagos governor, Babatunde Fashola, had accused Thisday of lacking integrity. “Little did I know, on receipt of the award,” Fashola said, in a letter made public. “That it was a Greek gift meant to tie my hands and prevent me from upholding my oath of office, to do right to all manner of people according to law without fear or favour, affection or ill-will.” F
The Awards tried, gallantly to keep head above water. In 2013, it re-calibrated as a low-key prize for Nigerian teachers. 15 of them were honoured from across the country. They were promised N2 million each. They got cheques, presented by former United States president Bill Clinton no less.
Barely days after, the cheques bounced.
“The cheques presented by a former President of the United States of America, Bill Clinton, to teachers in Nigeria during the THISDAY awards in honour of the teachers have bounced,” The Eagle Online reported in April that year. “Impeccable sources told The Eagle Online that the cheques, presented to the teachers on February 26, 2013 at the 18th THISDAY awards in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, have been dishonoured by the banks because there has been no cash backing for it.”
And there was more bad news. “A source, who spoke with The Eagle Online on Wednesday after the story of the death of two staff of THISDAY who could not pay their hospital bills because the company was owing them two months salary. Those who died were Pastor Agaga Silver, a staff in the maintenance sector of the Lagos office; and the Gombe State Correspondent, Saka Ibrahim.
“The source, who also alleged that the management of Leaders and Company Limited, publishers of THISDAY, was deducing staff pension fund without remitting it and paying its own contribution, said the company equally engaged in taking the contributions of members of the company’s Cooperative Society deducted directly from their salary without giving same to the society.
The source said the staff at the headquarters of the company have almost run out of excuses to give the teachers who have been persistent in calling for the release of the money given as gift to them for the awards.”
Indeed, in February 2012, an angry staff of the company had taken over its Twitter account and laid the shame bare for the world to judge. “This Thisday guy is a thief,” he/she ended a series of tweets. “Thisday is rubbish.”
It eventually became a bit too much. In 2013, the staff went on strike, the news ricocheting across the globe. “Newspaper staffers strike against publisher, Nduka Obaigbena in Nigeria,” the Associated Press (AP) announced.
The situation in Thisday, a member of staff said: “is pathetic.”
The Duke of Hazard
“It’s simple: The scale of his ambition constantly outstrips his resources,” a former bank executive, who has been very close to Obaigena and requested anonymity to speak freely, explained to this reporter. “Nduka wants to build the biggest things, drive the biggest cars. He goes to South Africa, and he always books the biggest suite in the obscenely expensive Michelangelo (he is known only to stay at the Lanesborough in London, the St Regis in New York and the Ritz Carlton in Washington DC). He sees himself as royalty, even if his purse doesn’t agree.”
In 2012, the Financial Times’ editor Lionel Barber had dinner in Lagos with Obaigbena. He found the same thing. “(Nduka) is a fashion impresario and media mogul who counts Beyoncé, the Blairs, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton among his star turns. A huge man with a paunch and silvery goatee, Nduka might have been a Bond movie villain in another life. He lives in an apartment stuffed with modern African art, marble and faux Louis XIV furnishings. A giant TV screen features Barcelona versus AC Milan in the Champions League. Cocktails are Courvoisier or Johnnie Walker Blue Label (“three shots or four?”). Dinner features giant snails, shrimp, smoked chicken and lamb, washed down with pink champagne. Every 10 minutes, Nduka’s cell phone rings. Every 30 minutes, a giant fist pounds a silver bell to demand more champagne.”
In 2012, he informed the New York Times that, in addition to his Lagos home, he owns a sprawling country estate in Delta, his home state, and maintains a penthouse at the Ritz Carlton in Washtington DC.
(From the Times: ““I like to live modestly and discreetly,” said Mr. Obaigbena, with no trace of irony.”)
“He is typical Nigerian big man,” said a member of his staff, who requested anonymity. “Spend lau lau (lavishly), bring girls into his house, chase them around his room to sleep with him whether they are singers or designers. Wants to show everybody that he has money. Which is fine, if he has money. But he doesn’t have money. Nig_er is owing everybody.”
Indeed, what was always rumour was confirmed this year, by his lawyers no less.
Samuel Zibiri, representing Obaigbena and his holding company, Leaders and Company Limited in the case filed by Ibe, told the court on 7 May that his client lives on debt.
“The National Industrial Court had in February in suit number NICN/ABJ/26/2011 awarded N1 million in general damages and other succeeding relief running into several million Naira to Mr. Ibe,” Premium Times reported. However, following the refusal of the judgment debtors to pay Mr Ibe as ordered by the court, his lawyer filed an application for Garnishee Nisi against the monies of the judgement debtor in account with the following banks: Access Bank Plc, First City Monument Bank Plc, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc and Zenith Bank Plc.
“Access Bank in its Garnishee affidavit to show cause deposed to by Oyorokoto Oghenerume Emmanuel of M/S Thames Partners, the 1st Garnishee said that the 1st Judgment Debtor (Leaders & Company Limited) maintains four accounts with insignificant credit balances but indebted to the tune of N2,155,000,000.00 comprising Term Loan Facility in the sum of N1,705,000,000.00 and BOI/CBN Intervention Fund Facility of N450,000,000.00.
“In its affidavit in response to the Garnishee Nisi, FCMB stated that a search of its records confirms that the Leaders & Company Limited is indebted to the bank to the tune of N17,590,703.19.
“Zenith Bank, which is the fourth Garnishee confirmed that the Leaders & Company maintains two accounts with the bank but as at 24th April 2015, the accounts had debit balances of N0.00 DR and -N195,010,639.16 DR, respectively.
“Although the GTB was not present in court, the affidavit it has filed with the court showed that the Leaders & Company Limited has a credit of balance of less than N500,000.00 with it.”
Indeed, it is urban legend across media circles that GTBank is owed such sums by Obaigbena it had to set up a branch right in front of the Thisday office in Apapa to ensure direct remittances.
I have a dream
Born on July 14, 1959 in Ibadan, Obaigbena (who is from the minority Ika group in Delta) attended Edo College in Benin City and got a degree in Creative Arts from the University of Benin.
His father, Edwin Ukperi Oba-igbena, was a Prince of the Owa Kingdom and World War II veteran. He passed on in 2007, at the age of 90. With Obaigbena’s mother, Margaret (who turned 80 at a lavish ceremony graced by the Nigerian President’s rep in Abuja in 2014) they had six children. Nduka is the 5th child, and the only surviving son of his parents; his last surviving brother, Rotimi passing on in March 2015, aged 56.
Obaigbena began ThisDay as a weekly, called ThisWeek, in 1987.
From a 2011 AP Profile: “On surface, the story of Nduka is quite a Disney fairytale. A man, driven by the negative images of his home country in the media, goes on to start his own weekly news magazine at the age of 26. By starting his publication, ThisWeek, he become one of Nigeria’s youngest publishers. The magazine folded after only one year when General Babangida’s government deregulated the foreign exchange market in 1986 (the all-gloss magazine was being printed in England) , thus significantly loosing the value of the naira currency for several years, but Nduka continued his quest to use the media to his advantage.
It evolved into Thisday, launched on 22 January, 1995. In three years, ThisDay went on to publish hundreds of thousands of copies in circulation daily and had more than 700 staff members in 38 offices across the nation.It shook “ up the industry and (riled) the country’s military rulers with brave news reporting. It was so effective that, “during a violent government crackdown on the press by General Sani Abacha, he was arrested, alongside many others, for the critical tone of the press.”
“Scores of journalists were arrested and killed,” he told the New York Times. in a July 2008 profile by Angelo Ragaza (who, it must be noted, was at the time on Nduka’s payroll at ARISE) “The publisher of our competing paper, The Guardian, was shot and almost died.”
After his detention, “Obaigbena went into exile for two years, returning just a month after Mr. Abacha’s death. ThisDay has continued to be a lightning rod,” the profile said. “A 2002 editorial criticizing Islamic officials for condemning the Miss World pageant led to ThisDay’s offices being ransacked and burned; fatwas were issued against its editors.”
He has dabbled in other things apart from journalism. “In 1991 he ran for the Senate (and lost), and in 1994 he was elected a member of the Constitutional Conference, which drafted the current (1999) Nigeria Constitution. In 1990 he was appointed a member of the sub-committee of the Technical Committee on Privatization and Commercialization which executed the privatization programme of the Babangida administration. He was also a member of the Delta State Government Think-Tank that wrote the blue-print for the economic revitalization of Delta State. In partnership with the IMF he convened the Nigeria Investment Summit in 1997 in Washington DC. He has been keynote speaker at several national and international fora, including the World Bank and IMF-sponsored Poverty Reduction Strategy conferences in Dakar, Senegal and Washington DC.
“In 2007 he hosted “Nigeria Meets the World” in New York which attracted several world political and business leaders. He is also a member of the Nominating Committee of the Young Global Leaders Forum in Davos, Switzerland and regularly moderates sessions with world leaders for the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Dalian, China, and Cape Town. Nduka Obaigbena is a trail blazer. His ThisDay newspaper set the trend in colour paging and is printed simultaneously in Lagos and Abuja.”
He keeps his family close to his chest, but he is father to eight children, including three girls who have all studies at universities in the United States of America. He doesn’t live with a wife.
A beautiful mind
If there is any consensus on Obaigbena, apart from his integrity, it’s his brilliance.
“He’s a larger-than-life personality,” said Bayo Alade-Loba, head of sub-Saharan banking for Credit Suisse.
“That’s the shame of all of this,” according to an industry player who has dealt directly with him. “He has such a great mind. All these ideas, he comes about them himself, and he finds his way to get it done. He is also one of Nigeria’s best journalists. When you see a major feature on the Thisday front page especially on Sundays, know that it’s Nduka who wrote it.”
Indeed, it is not difficult to believe this. In addition to the large-scale events he has produced, Thisday’s media brands stand out in beauty and thought, including Gliterrati, the coveted Thisday BackPage and Thisday Style that blazed the trail in Saturday glossies, one that at least five major newspapers now directly copy.
“A brilliant man,” the industry player above continued. “He can really do great things if he can just learn discipline and have just a bit of self awareness. Unfortunately, he is maybe too far gone and too desperate for the good life to do what he needs to do to own his space. It’s in fact a miracle that Thisday is still afloat! How can a man so smart about everything else be so clueless about himself?”
That is the question the many who truly admire Obaigbena ask themselves, even as his missteps obscure his legacies.
He has not suffered a lack of resources by any chance.
He told the Times that ThisDay’s corporate parent, Leaders and Company, of which he owns 95 percent, had $100 million in revenue in 2007, and that he also earned $20 million from real estate and stock holdings.
For the Thisday Festival in 2008, Jay Z received over $1,000,050 to perform. At the Royal Albert Hall London concert he held tagged ‘Africa Rising’, Christina Aguilera was paid $1,500,000. Naomi Campbell was reportedly paid over $250,000 just for showing up for each appearance and a further $350,000 for Lagos and Abuja appearances. He also reportedly paid over a million dollars for logistics per each concert held outside Nigeria.
In 2013, the UK’s Daily Mail reported: “The Nigerian president spent $1million of aid money to entice international popstars such as Beyonce and Jay-Z to perform at a music festival in the poverty-stricken country.”
He also has not lacked for credibility. “Nduka obviously has a remarkable vision, real passion and a special message,” Campbell had eagerly told the Times for its profile. “He’s not just a promoter. The more I found out, the more I wanted to be involved.”
Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard was also eager to share a supportive quote: “There are so many investment opportunities at present that good governance is going to be quite material in where that investment goes. Obaigbena is striking a blow for the truer path.”
This year, ARISE TV won an Emmy for its documentary ‘How the Harlem Globetrottters Battled Racism.”
The Sound and the Fury
Unfortunately, the otherwise impressive (by Nigerian standards) ARISE TV – it is officially called ARISE News – is the latest symptom of a long-standing defect, whatever it is.
It was set up as “an emerging 24-hour news and entertainment channel” and declared that it had employed over 500 “world class journalists”. It attracted many of Nigeria’s brightest media talent abroad and set up well appointed offices in the center of London’s financial district.
But, according to A516Digital, a media blog based in the UK, apart from its solvency issues, its quality had always been bad. “(It has) poor production standards, constant playout errors, lack of coherent scheduling and very little news,” a writer noted in 2014. “Having monitored the channel’s output over several days, there does not appear to be the range of programming to back up the claims of the network having broadcast hubs in New York, Johannesburg and Lagos, with the only presented programme appearing elsewhere other than London, being the “360” entertainment programme.
“For a 24 hour news network, the lack of news is astonishing. The playout of what the channel does air is also poor, with breaks crashing in and out of programmes, the text identifiers of video clips regularly broadcast – giving a sense of a poorly put together play out operation. Its site is of a generally very poor quality. The channel had potential, but it is being operated in an appalling manner. It would seem now that it is too late for the venture to be rescued and turned into anything relatively close to a viable, non-partisan international news outlet.”
Thus it must be said, with the oncoming failure of ARISE TV, Nduka is facing failure both at home and abroad.
In the UK: “Arise News’ website hasn’t been updated since July 2nd. There are no video clips available even though it appears they once did exist, and a live feed of the channel is also inoperative. The internet is littered with negative comments from staffers complaining about management and pay. An anonymous employee posted; “No pay in over three months, and they get upset when you ask to be paid. Payment is only for the selected few friendly with management.
“With it’s owners less-than-reputable status to one side, the channel’s very continuance to broadcast such poor output will lead to it’s swift downfall. I cannot see how Ofcom will allow the channel to remain broadcasting for much longer, especially with what are in my estimation, repeated breaches of the Broadcasting Code upon which it is licensed to operate.
“From a UK perspective, it is also unclear how long Sky, the satellite platform for which it has a coveted Electronic Programming Guide slot, will continue to allow the channel to occupy a position in “News” when it clearly doesn’t meet the requirements of a news channel. At best, Arise News is an entertainment channel, but even that is pushing it.As one disgruntled employee posted elsewhere; “this channel should be relegated to Youtube.”
“Interestingly, Arise Broadcasting Ltd is registered with the UK’s companies house as a dormant company (non trading), whilst Arise Media UK Ltd, which is the company named all over the Arise News website, shares the same registered address as Arise Broadcasting Ltd, but harbours a balance sheet with a nearly £18m hole in it.”
In Nigeria: “SaharaReporters has exclusively learned that the publisher of ThisDay Newspapers, and Chairman of Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigerian (NPAN), Nduka Obaigbena, was on June 26 invited to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over what our source at the agency described as alleged money laundering.”
Just two days before that, he had gotten another kind of summons, this time from his Lagos staff.
In February, Obaigbena (who, ironically, chairs the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria) had promised to pay all their outstanding salary and bonus (some were owed for as much as 18 months). When he hadn’t after four months, staff shut the paper down at about 5am on 24 June. It was opened days after, following intense negotiation.
“It took four long nights to extract a deal from the Publisher of THISDAY,” Nseobong Okon-Ekong, chair of Thisday’s Nigerian Union of Journalists chapter, tweeted on 7 July; with transparent weariness.
“It’s a classic Nigerian tragedy,” said his friend, the ex-banker. Nduka is a big dreamer, and Nigeria needs big dreamers. Unfortunately, he also lacks any shred of integrity, and thus cannot go very far in the new world that’s emerging.”
A tragedy indeed. If any one man has truly transformed Nigeria’s media, it would be him. The joyless Nigerian media space here has benefited from his big, bold, brash ideas.
So, Nigeria does need visionaries like Obaigbena. Desperately.
Unfortunately, he can’t seem to get out of his own way long enough for us (and him) to realise that.
by Fatima Usman
Credit-partyjollof.com
The post Long Read: The Fall And Rise (And Rise, And Fall) Of Nduka Obaigbena appeared first on The Sheet.